Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Bashir Badr has been in the news for wrong reasons lately. First it was the controversy surrounding his statement that he could play the role of all prophets from Adam [and later of Satan as well].

'Hazrat Aadam se le kar har paighambar aur unke aagey Shaitaan tak ta roop dhar sakta hoon'. [This is not the entire sentence, he made the offending statement brazenly and it should not be reproduced in full]

No sooner did the statement got published in Madhya Pradesh, than people came out on streets and his effigies were burnt. There was a wave of anger. The statement could not be retracted because he had said it on camera.

Meanwhile, in a mushaira, Munawwar Rana had barely read the first stanza of his couplet that Badar who was on stage itself said 'Lahaul Wilaquat' [Disapproving couplet as trash].

This was heard by the vast crowd as the mike was in the front and scores of loudspeakers blared out the Lahaul around the vast ground in Bhopal. Angered by this 'bad-tahzibi' [uncultured behaviour], local leaders and youths beat up his effigy, held demonstrations and issued strong statements against him.

There was wide condemnation. The most senior Urdu poets of Bhopal including veteran Ishrat Qadri came on television and said that Badar had lost his mental balance. Now, he has to deal with another situation. Thieves have struck at his house.

And people were wondering what thieves would have taken from his house as large part of his poetry is nothing but excerpts from past poets' works and picked up from little-known shayars [shaa'er] whose couplets he slightly altered to suit present day needs. Wallah Alam.

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